Eating Disorder Assessment for This Visit

Tool	What it measures	Items or length	Who administers it
SCOFF	Brief screen for anorexia and bulimia features	5 yes/no items, under 2 minutes	Client self-report; you tally
ESP	Brief screen for an eating disorder in primary care	4 items, under 2 minutes	You ask
EAT-26	Eating attitudes and related symptoms	26 rated items plus behavioral questions, about 2 minutes	Client self-report
EDE-Q	Eating-disorder psychopathology over 28 days	Current questionnaire (EDE-Q 6.0)	Client self-report
BES	Binge-eating severity	16 items	Client self-report
EDE	Interviewer-rated diagnosis and severity	Current interview (EDE 17.0D)	Trained interviewer

The validation sample sets the limit of each tool. The final column names the visit question it can answer.

Tool	Validated in	When to pick it
SCOFF	Women in a UK specialist clinic versus controls	Two-minute screen when AN or BN features may be in the room
ESP	UK primary-care patients and university students	Four-item screen in a primary-care style visit
EAT-26	Female anorexia nervosa patients versus female comparison subjects	Self-report screen of eating attitudes
EDE-Q	Compared with the EDE interview	Repeatable 28-day severity track
BES	Adults with obesity, grouped by interviewer binge-eating ratings	Binge-eating severity is the question
EDE	Patients with anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa versus controls	Trained diagnostic interview, not a waiting-room form

Authored by Amara Collins, clinical psychologist trained in attachment-informed and trauma-aware work, with a focus on continuity of care across missed sessions and long gaps.

You have twelve minutes before the next hour. The referral names “food issues.” You need one eating disorder assessment for this visit, not a testing battery and not a technique plan.

These six instruments are the usual outpatient set. SCOFF and ESP are eating disorder screening tools. EAT-26 is a 26-item self-report screen of eating attitudes. BES, EDE-Q, and the EDE interview are eating disorder assessment tools you use when the job is severity or a trained interview. None of them diagnoses from a total. None of them reprints here. Get the current form from the publisher, then chart the name, date, score, and next step.

Educational content for licensed therapists, not clinical, medical, or legal advice. A score is not a diagnosis. Confirm current publisher terms before you administer or copy anything. Eating-disorder work sits in a higher-risk corner of practice; if you are not specialist-trained, assessment plus referral is the defensible move.

How you read an eating disorder assessment score

Keep the reading rule, form source, and limit beside the score in your note. Do not paste item wording into the chart.

SCOFF

Count yes answers. In the original study, two or more yes answers was a positive screen. A positive screen is a reason to interview, not a diagnosis.

Use the original BMJ publication. Do not reprint the five questions here. For administration depth on that one screen, use the SCOFF questionnaire page.

SCOFF does not provide a 28-day severity track, a binge-eating scale, or a trained interview.

ESP

Count abnormal answers on the four-item set. In the original primary-care and student sample, zero or one abnormal answer made an eating disorder unlikely, and three or more made one likely. Two answers sat in between.

Use the original Journal of General Internal Medicine paper. Do not reprint the questions.

ESP is not an EDE-Q substitute or a binge-eating severity score.

EAT-26

Sum the 26 rated items with the publisher key. The official site treats a total of 20 or more as a reason to refer for a full evaluation, and it reads the behavioral questions separately. Read both parts. Do not treat the total as anorexia nervosa.

Download the current English form from the EAT-26 site and follow the permission line printed there.

EAT-26 is not a DSM diagnostic interview.

EDE-Q

Use the current questionnaire from the publisher. Higher scores mean more eating-disorder psychopathology over the last 28 days. Compare the global score with the norms on the scoring materials you obtained, then write one next step.

Obtain the current EDE-Q and scoring instructions from the CBT-E measures page.

EDE-Q is not the EDE interview. Self-report can diverge from interviewer ratings, which is why Fairburn and Beglin compared the two.

BES

Sum the 16 items. Higher scores mean more severe binge-eating features. The original paper grouped people against interviewer ratings of no, moderate, or severe binge eating. That grouping is not a DSM-5 binge eating disorder diagnosis.

Cite and obtain the instrument from the original Addictive Behaviors paper. Do not photocopy a reprint you do not hold rights to.

BES is not a screen for restriction-only anorexia nervosa, and it was validated in adults with obesity, not in every outpatient age band.

EDE

A trained interviewer rates restraint, eating concern, shape concern, and weight concern, plus diagnostic items. This is the reference interview the EDE-Q was written against.

Obtain the current interview schedule from the CBT-E measures page. You need training before you run it.

EDE is not a waiting-room form. If you are not trained, do not improvise an EDE from the questionnaire.

When this chooser stops

Stop this page when the job is no longer choosing an instrument for this visit.

If the hour is already technique selection for CBT-E, DBT-informed skills, or family-informed support, leave this chooser and use eating disorder therapy techniques.

If the question is which brief depression or anxiety scale to repeat in ordinary outpatient therapy, use scales for mental health. Do not stack PHQ-9 on top of EDE-Q in the same ten minutes unless both tracks are active treatment targets.

If you already have a working diagnosis and need the team plan, including medical co-management, use the eating disorder treatment plan template.

Pause the form and follow your own medical pathway if the client is medically unstable. A high total is not a medical clearance.

Chart the choice

Write a covering clinician a stem they can follow without the item sentences.

Use the blank fields when you chart a real visit. Keep fictional initials out of a live record.

Download the mental health rating scales guide to organize the measures you repeat, their cadence, and the chart line beside each score.

References

• Morgan, J. F., Reid, F., & Lacey, J. H. (1999). The SCOFF questionnaire: Assessment of a new screening tool for eating disorders. BMJ, 319(7223), 1467–1468. DOI
• Cotton, M.-A., Ball, C., & Robinson, P. (2003). Four simple questions can help screen for eating disorders. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 18(1), 53–56. DOI
• Garner, D. M., Olmsted, M. P., Bohr, Y., & Garfinkel, P. E. (1982). The Eating Attitudes Test: Psychometric features and clinical correlates. Psychological Medicine, 12(4), 871–878. PubMed
• Fairburn, C. G., & Beglin, S. J. (1994). Assessment of eating disorders: Interview or self-report questionnaire? International Journal of Eating Disorders, 16(4), 363–370. PubMed
• Gormally, J., Black, S., Daston, S., & Rardin, D. (1982). The assessment of binge eating severity among obese persons. Addictive Behaviors, 7(1), 47–55. PubMed
• Cooper, Z., Cooper, P. J., & Fairburn, C. G. (1989). The validity of the Eating Disorder Examination and its subscales. British Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 807–812. PubMed
• CBT-E. (n.d.). Measures. CBT-E measures
• Garner, D. M. (n.d.). EAT-26. EAT-26